[2] In 1916, English folklorist Cecil Sharp visited Madison County to collect and record traditional folk songs being sung in America that would have originated generations earlier in the British Isles.

When Cecil Sharp came to Madison County in 1916 as part of his project to collect old English ballads, Sands was 44 years old and was eight and a half months pregnant with her tenth child.

This list includes dates, titles, and volume and page references to the second and enlarged edition (two volumes-in-one) of Sharp's English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians,[3] published in 1932.

A number of present-day traditional ballad singers have included Sands's songs in their repertoires for live concerts as well as in sound recordings.

Sheila Kay Adams,[10] award-winning singer, musician, story teller, and author, has recorded an album entitled My Dearest Dear,[11] which includes six songs that are part of Sharp's collection from Sands.

Awake!," "The Silk Merchants Daughter," "Sweet William (Earl Brand)," "The House Carpenter (The Daemon Lover)," "My Sad Overthrow (The Sheffield Apprentice)," "The Handkerchief (The Suffolk Miracle)," "Lady Marget (Fair Margaret and Sweet William)," "The Boatsman and the Chest," "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellender," "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight," "Jimmy Randall (Lord Randall)," and "Your Sins Will Find You Out."